TV Ratings: AMC's 'Halt and Catch Fire' Opens to Just 1.2 Million Viewers

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After an aggressive online and on-demand sampling, the inaugural telecast comes in south of recent AMC launches.

AMC is likely hoping more viewers with catch on to Halt and Catch Fire.

After an aggressive sampling strategy for its newest drama, the inaugural telecast brought in 1.2 million viewers on Sunday night. That's 900,000 viewers shy of Turn's premiere in April -- albeit a launch that did not get the same online rollout as Halt and Catch Fire.

For nearly two weeks, AMC made the Halt and Catch Fire pilot available on AMC.com, Tumblr and its on-demand platform. It's the widest preview net the cable network has cast to date, and AMC president Charlie Collier noted in a Monday release that it already received hundreds of thousands of plays.

That means full premiere ratings will come down the line -- and ideally the initial promotion push will translates to bigger same-day returns moving forward. The 10 p.m. telecast averaged only 433,000 viewers in the targeted adults 18-49 demographic.

Time-shifting could also be a boon to Halt and Catch Fire's soft open. AMC, like all networks, has seen its DVR ratings on the rise. The recent season finale of Mad Men jumped a whopping 116 percent in the key demo after just three days' worth of DVR views. That episode now stands at 3.6 million total viewers and 1.84 million adults 18-49.